CAT/SCAN: Calabria-Apennine-Tyrrhenian / Subduction-Collision-Accretion
Network a Joint American-Italian Project to Monitor Earthquakes
on the Most Active Seismic Belt in Italy

The Italian peninsula across the Mediterranean
Sea is part of the tectonic plate boundary - the accommodation
zone -- between the Eurasian and the African plates, which continue
to move closer to each other. This motion controls the long-term
evolution of the boundary, but recent geologic changes suggest
a more rapid tectonic event superimposed on the slow motion of
the big plates and localized to the Apennine arc. This signature
event of the Italian peninsula is most dramatically manifested
in the current deformation along the Calabrian portion of the arc
and is the main focus of this project.

Researchers from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,
in conjunction with researchers from the Istituto Nazionale di
Geofisica e Vulcanologia and the University of Cosenza, are working
to deploy 50 portable digital broadband seismographs throughout
southern Italy. These instruments will record both global and regional
earthquakes for 18 months. Researchers are also working to deploy
an additional 10 digital broad-band ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS)
offshore for a period of 12 months. Researchers will use signals
from distant earthquakes to develop a catscan, or a three dimensional
image, of the Earth's crust and mantle beneath the Italian Peninsula
of the earth. read more background
information on project

After installing a station in an old convent
just outside Montella, a building in Craco (pictured above)
seemed another perfect place for a seismograph station, free
from cultural noise that can cause problems in seismic readings.

With the Twelfth Day marking the close
of the holiday season in this part of the world, the
CAT/SCAN instrument deployment phase is kicking into
high gear. This week, the weather cleared and we received
permission from the "Department of the Belle Arti" to
install a station in the restored old convent just outside
(and above!) Montella. This is an inspiring place, restored
with sensitivity and obvious pride. We drove to the site,
climbing a winding road through chestnut groves and small
pastures, and met the caretaker at the gate. His father
had been the previous caretaker, and he grew up at the
convent. One of the requirements of this installation,
and rightly so, is that the presence of anything "modern" be
completely camouflaged, so that nothing detracts from
the historical ambiance of the convent. The station itself
is hidden in a buried utility room, while the only part
that must be exposed, the GPS antenna that provides our
timing signal, is hidden in a mound of sod on one of
the small stone buttresses surrounding the door. The
caretaker helped us by chiseling a hidden recess for
the connecting cable. As geologists, we pound on million-year-old
rocks with abandon. But rock hammers have no place in
the vicinity of a structure of this magnificence.

The "castle strategy" is one
way to roam the countryside looking for stations. Castles
(or convents and monasteries) are built on high ground
on bedrock, and are usually isolated from the cultural
noise that can cause problems in seismic recordings.
Whether it is in private or public hands, the pride that
residents take in the local castle offers a degree of
local partnership that civil bureaucracies have difficulty
matching. But in some areas, our good relationship with
the government leads us to more preferable sites. This
was the case when we installed our next stations in an
old stable at an agricultural research station near Castel
del Monte, and in a small government-owned building in
Craco, near Matera.

Craco (pictured) is perched on a vertically-inclined
stream-bed conglomerate indicative of the incipient continental
collision in the southern Apennines. Thus the station
is perfectly positioned to illuminate the transition
between oceanic subduction to the southeast and continental
collision to the northwest. Although our colleagues at
INGV identified the station site for us, and we were
assisted by the local caretaker, Mr. D'Onofrio, we're
happy that we showed the station to a war veteran, Francesco,
and his daughter, Michelina, living across the street.
They'll look after the site for us.

Near Craco, we stayed overnight in a
hotel in Castellaneta, with dozens of photos of Rudolph
Valentino on the walls. When we told the owner that we
recognized the silent film star, he looked at us as if
we were nuts. "Don't you guys know anything? Valentino
was born in Castellaneta." The name of the hotel
is "Rudy". We had failed to connect the dots.

Finally, we installed a station in a shed near
a wheat field and vineyard belonging to Mr. Santangelo, just outside
of Tricarico. This, too, is a beautiful site, high on a hill in a
quiet area. Mr. Santangelo is a friend of Mr. Pancrazio, the former
mayor, who, in turn, is a friend of Nano Seeber's brother. The station
was installed by Chad Holmes and John Armbruster, with help from
Mr. Salvatore Esposito. Afterwards, we had a late lunch in Mr. Pancrazio's
apartment in the center of town. Pasta pomodoro, sausage, cheese,
fruit, wine from Basilicata, and plenty of conversation. Food and
science are great social lubricants.

This joint project involves researchers
from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO): Michael
Steckler, Leonardo Seeber, Arthur Lerner-Lam, and Maya
Tolstoy; researchers from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica
e Vulcanologia (INGV): Alessandro Amato, Gianni B. Cimini,
Claudio Chiarabba, Marco Cattaneo, and President Enzo
Boschi; and researchers from the Universita di Cosenza,
including Professor Ignazio Guerra. Support provided
by the Continental Dynamics Program of the US National
Science Foundation. Additional support provided by the
NSF EAR Instrumentation and Facilities program through
IRIS, and the OCE MG&G program through the OBS deployments
and support of the OBSIP facility.